Responding and Recovering from Death in the School Community

This 3-hour interactive course is designed for school counselors, leaders, and mental health professionals working in international school settings, where experiences of grief, loss, crisis response, and community recovery are shaped by diverse cultural, religious, linguistic, and systemic contexts.
Grounded in best practices and real-world school application, the course supports participants in developing a clear, compassionate, and coordinated response when a death impacts the school community. Participants will explore how schools can respond in the immediate aftermath of a death, communicate with care, support students, staff, and families, and create structures for ongoing recovery.

The course focuses on key considerations in school postvention, including communication, roles and responsibilities, memorialization, cultural considerations, student and staff support, and longer-term recovery planning. ISCA’s Suicide Awareness and Prevention Toolkit (SAPT) will be introduced as a practical resource to support schools in reviewing, strengthening, and implementing postvention policies, protocols, and tools, particularly in cases involving death by suicide.

Through discussion, reflection, school-based tools, and case examples, participants will have opportunities to apply postvention principles to realistic scenarios and consider how these practices can be adapted to their own school communities. Participants will leave with practical strategies and increased confidence to respond with clarity, sensitivity, and care during some of the most challenging moments a school community may face.

Intended Audience

International school counselors PK-12, school mental health professionals, and administrators

ISCA Student Standards

Social/Emotional Domain

Standard A: Students will demonstrate the dispositions, knowledge, and skills to develop and maintain positive relationships with self and others.

Competency A1 ~ Social & Self-Awareness

SE:A1:2 Identify and express feelings and emotions
SE:A1:3 Develop self-awareness and self-management skills essential for mental health
SE:A1:4 Take action, individually or with support, to positively impact one’s own mental health
SE:A1:5 Describe the relationship between feelings and behavior
SE:A1:6 Develop healthy ways to identify, express, and respond to one’s emotions
SE:A1:11 Identify strategies to cope with loss and grief
SE:A1:13 Identify the signs of stress and use techniques for reducing stress

Competency A2 ~ Relationships

SE:A2:1 Make and maintain healthy relationships, including friendships, to promote mental health
SE:A2:2 Develop essential components of healthy relationships, including empathy, respect, compassion, and acceptance of differences
SE:A2:3 Use effective oral and written communication skills, including active listening skills and both verbal and nonverbal behaviors

Standard B: Students will demonstrate responsible decision-making skills to make safe and healthy choices.

Competency B1 ~ Responsible Decision-Making and Behavior

SE:B1:3 Apply effective problem-solving and responsible decision-making skills to make safe and healthy choices
SE:B1:5 Demonstrate when, where, and how to seek support for solving problems and making decisions

Standard C: Students will demonstrate the ability to access support systems and resources that promote safety, connection, and well-being.

Competency C1 ~ Help-Seeking and Support

SE:C1:10 Identify trusted adults in the school and community, and know how, when, and where to ask for help for self and others

Global Perspective and Identity Development

Relevant areas of focus include helping students understand how cultural traditions, values, and beliefs may shape grief responses; supporting empathy and respect across differences; and ensuring that postvention practices are culturally responsive and inclusive.

ASCA Professional Standards and Ethical Standards and Practices

This course is aligned with the ethical and professional expectations outlined by the American School Counselor Association Ethical Standards, supporting school counselors and school leaders in responding to death in the school community with integrity, compassion, confidentiality, and student-centered decision-making. Grounded in these standards, the course emphasizes the ethical responsibility to protect student dignity, promote emotional safety, respect privacy, communicate carefully, and provide culturally responsive support during times of grief, loss, and crisis.

Participants will explore how ethical principles apply in the immediate and ongoing response to a death, including decisions related to communication, confidentiality, family and caregiver involvement, student support, staff collaboration, memorialization, documentation, referral, and the identification of students who may need additional care. Particular attention will be given to the complexity of responding to sudden or traumatic death, including death by suicide, where schools must balance compassion, transparency, privacy, safety, and the prevention of further harm.

The course also acknowledges that international school contexts require thoughtful adaptation of U.S.-based ethical standards. Participants will be encouraged to apply ethical principles flexibly and responsibly within diverse cultural, legal, religious, linguistic, and systemic environments. This includes considering local laws and customs, family and community values, language access, confidentiality expectations, and the availability of local mental health and crisis-response resources.

Through case examples, discussion, and applied postvention planning, participants will strengthen their capacity to make ethical, culturally responsive, and well-coordinated decisions that support student safety, community healing, and long-term recovery after a death in the school community.

Essential Questions

1. How can international schools respond to a death in the school community with clarity, compassion, and coordinated action while supporting student safety, staff well-being, and community recovery?
2. What does an ethical, culturally responsive, and student-centered postvention response look like when a school community is impacted by sudden death, traumatic loss, or death by suicide?
3. How can schools develop, implement, and sustain postvention policies, protocols, and tools that support communication, grief response, memorialization, and long-term healing across diverse cultural, legal, and systemic contexts?

Participants will have knowledge about:

1. Death response and recovery within international school contexts, including cultural, legal, religious, linguistic, and systemic considerations.
2. Best practice frameworks for crisis response, grief support, communication, memorialization, and postvention planning.
3. The school’s role in immediate response, ongoing support, and long-term community recovery after a death.
4. The use of ISCA’s Suicide Awareness and Prevention Toolkit (SAPT) and other resources to strengthen postvention policies, protocols, and tools.
5. Safe, compassionate, and developmentally appropriate communication with students, staff, families, and the wider community.
6. Risk, protective factors, and safe messaging considerations, especially following sudden, traumatic, or suicide-related deaths.

Participants will be able to:

1. Develop and strengthen culturally responsive postvention policies, protocols, and tools within your school.
2. Lead and collaborate within multidisciplinary teams to coordinate calm, compassionate, and consistent responses.
3. Apply step-by-step response protocols to different types of loss, including sudden, traumatic, illness-related, accidental, and suicide-related deaths.
4. Communicate clearly and sensitively with students, staff, families, and the wider school community.
5. Identify and support students, staff, or community members who may need additional care.
6. Navigate complex situations involving confidentiality, family dynamics, memorialization, cultural context, safe messaging, and contagion risk.
7. Use the SAPT and other resources to practice case examples and strengthen each school’s own postvention planning.

Lina Paumgarten

Lina Paumgarten is an international school counselor, consultant, and TCK with over 25+ years of experience supporting global communities. Her passion for suicide prevention is deeply personal—shaped by the loss of both her grandmother and aunt to suicide, and later by the death of a student, which propelled her into developing comprehensive prevention and intervention approaches for international schools. Lina is currently completing her doctoral dissertation on suicide prevention in international schools, focusing on a train-the-trainer model designed to build sustainable systems of care. She provides counseling and consulting through Linden Global Support Services and privately, working with schools, families, and individuals worldwide. She has created the ICARE framework—Identify warning signs, Connect with empathy, Ask directly about suicide, Reduce/Remove risk, and Escort to help. For more information go to: linapaumgarten.com

ISCA Member Price: $180

Non-Member Price: $260

Dates and times of offerings:

March 25, 2027; 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM UTC

Contact Hours: 3 hours

Time commitment between sessions: n/a

Required Resource(s): Suicide Awareness & Prevention Toolkit (SAPT)